Shanghai bishop dies

SHANGHAI bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, who spent almost two decades in prison, has died in China, the Catholic news service AsiaNews says. He was 97.
Jin worked to improve tense relations between the Vatican-loyal underground church and China's officially-sanctioned Catholic church, which doesn't recognise papal authority to make bishops.
Vatican official Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai on Saturday praised Jin's efforts to educate seminarians.
Jin, who died on Saturday, was consecrated a bishop in 1985 without papal approval but later reconciled with the Vatican.
He was first arrested in 1955 and spent a total of 18 years in prison and nine years in re-education camps.
In continuing tensions, Chinese authorities revoked the title of Jin's choice for successor, Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daquin, and confined him to a seminary after he withdrew from China's official body overseeing the church.